Charles Henri Ford, artist, poet, editor, and filmmaker, was born on February 13,
1913, in Brookhaven, Mississippi. In his teens, Ford had two poems, "Interlude" and "In the
Park (For a Gold Digger)," published in the New
Yorker, after which he continued to publish poetry in various little
magazines, such as Free Verse and Contemporary Verse. Ford dropped out of high school in
1929 in order to publish, with Parker Tyler and Kathleen Tankersley, the little
magazine Blues: A Magazine of New Rhythms. Envisioned
as a vehicle for experimental writing, Blues boasted
such contributors as Kay Boyle, Witter Bynner, Erskine Caldwell, Harry Crosby,
E. E.
Cummings, James T. Farrell, H. D., Oliver Jenkins, Eugene Jolas, Ezra Pound, Kenneth
Rexroth, Laura Riding, Herman Spector, Gertrude Stein, Laurence Vail, William
Carlos
Williams, and Louis Zukofsky. During this period, Ford continued to publish his
poems in Blues and other little magazines, including
Transition, New
Review, and Tambour.

After a brief stint in Greenwich Village beginning in 1930, Ford sailed for Paris
in
1931, where he quickly ensconced himself in the expatriate literary community.
Ford
cultivated friendships with Natalie Barney, Paul Bowles, Paul Claudel, René Crevel,
Mina Loy, Carmen Mariño, Edouard Roditi, and Gertrude Stein, among many others.
His
friendship with Djuna Barnes resulted in their sharing an apartment and in Ford's
typing part of the manuscript of Barnes's novel Nightwood. In 1932, Barnes introduced Ford to the Russian painter Pavel
Tchelitchew. Despite Tchelitchew's relationship with Allan Tanner and the
disapproval of friends of both Ford and Tchelitchew, they began to live together
in
1934, an arrangement that continued until Tchelitchew's death in 1957. Throughout
this period, Ford continued to write, publishing "Letter
from the Provinces" in Readies for Bob Brown's
Machine (1931) and four poems in the anthology Americans Abroad (1932). His first collection of poetry, Pamphlet of Sonnets, appeared in 1936, which was
followed by The Garden of Disorder and Other Poems in
1938. In 1933, The Young and Evil, a novel written
with Parker Tyler about the homosexual world of Greenwich Village in the early
thirties, was published in Paris by the Obelisk Press.

From 1940 to 1947, Ford, again with Tyler, published another little magazine, View. The magazine provided a medium for the
dissemination of surrealist writing and painting. Individual issues were devoted
to
the artists Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, and Pavel Tchelitchew, and contributors and
illustrators included Ford, Tyler, Lionel Abel, Kenneth Burke, Joseph Cornell,
E. E.
Cummings, Randall Jarrell, Wallace Stevens, and William Carlos Williams. During
the
forties, Ford also published four books of poetry: The
Overturned Lake (1941); Poems for
Painters (1945); The Half-Thoughts, the Distances of
Pain (1947); and Sleep in a Nest of
Flames (1949). After this flurry of activity, there followed a long fallow
period, in which Ford dabbled in various activities, including drawing and painting,
while dividing his time among Weston, Connecticut; New York City; Paris; and the
suburbs of Rome.

Despite one-man exhibitions of his gouaches and oils in both Paris and Rome, Ford
did
not resume his creative endeavors in earnest until after the death of Tchelitchew.
Moving between Rome, Paris, New York City, and Greece, Ford devoted himself to
photography, until he returned to poetry with a series of "poster poems," published
as Spare Parts (1966) and Silver Flower Coo (1968). In 1972, Ford published the collection Flag of Ecstasy: Selected Poems, which was followed by
7 Poems in 1974. Ford's increasing interest in
Eastern philosophies inspired the series Om Krishna
(Vol. 1: Special Effects, 1979; v. 2: From the Sickroom of Walking Eagles, 1981; v. 3: Secret Haiku, 1982). Perhaps prompted by his
acquaintance with the denizens of Andy Warhol's Factory, Ford also made two movies:
Poem Posters (1966) and Johnny Minotaur (1972).

Charles Henri Ford died in New York City on September 27, 2002.

The Charles Henri Ford papers consist of typescript and holograph manuscripts,
correspondence, postcards, clippings, photographs, financial documents, contracts,
invitations, page proofs, prospectuses, journals, and diaries. The collection
is
organized in four series: I. Works, 1930-ca. 1965 (6.5 boxes); II. Correspondence,
1928-1972 (8.5 boxes); III. Miscellaneous, 1930-1965 (4 boxes); and IV.
Journals/Diaries, 1932-1981 (10 boxes). The arrangement of the first three series
reflects the earlier cataloguing of these materials. Additional information
concerning materials in the first three series, which are cataloged at item level,
may be found by consulting the card catalog.

The Works series consists of typescript and holograph manuscripts, notes, and page
proofs of Ford's literary work, including both published and unpublished material,
arranged alphabetically by title. There are poems in English and French, theatrical
work, and prose. Of special interest, there are holograph and typescript fragments
of The Young and Evil, including a holograph fragment
of the novel under its working title, "Love and Jump
Back," and articles for an unpublished issue of View, devoted to theater.

The Correspondence series contains both outgoing and incoming correspondence
(arranged in two subseries, each arranged alphabetically), including postcards
and
clippings. The outgoing correspondence touches on subjects such as Rome; Paris;
Vienna; Morocco; poster poems; Pavel Tchelitchew's designs for the theater; Sleep in a Nest of Flames; a project proposed to the
Ingram Merrill Foundation that would document View's
influence on the arts; assessments of Ford's contemporaries, including one in
which
he calls Henry Miller a fake; Paul Eluard; and Om
Krishna. There is also a large group of letters to Ford's sister Ruth, his
mother Gertrude, and his father Charles L., in which Charles Henri discusses the
various places where he lived, friends and acquaintances, professional associates,
and his work, with specific subjects that include Paris, New York City, Gertrude
Stein, Djuna Barnes, Pavel Tchelitchew, and The Young and
Evil.

Deserving special mention are large groups of letters from Djuna Barnes, Sir Cecil
Beaton, Paul Bowles, Dame Edith Sitwell, and Pavel Tchelitchew, in which these
correspondents discuss their professional and artistic aspirations and projects,
friends and associates, frustrations, daily routines, and romantic concerns.
Specific subjects include Djuna Barnes's novel Nightwood, Gertrude Stein, contemporary painting, theater design, poetry,
and contemporary music, just to name a few.

The Miscellaneous series includes correspondence to Charles L. Ford, Gertrude Ford,
Ruth Ford, Pavel Tchelitchew, and Parker Tyler from various correspondents,
including a large group of letters from Ruth Ford to Gertrude Ford. Among the
highlights are a typescript of Djuna Barnes's story, "Behind the Heart"; typescript poems by Paul Bowles; a typescript of Jean
Genet's "Chants secrets"; a typescript of Dame
Edith Sitwell's preface for Sleep in a Nest of
Flames; and typescript poems by Parker Tyler. The Miscellaneous series is
arranged alphabetically by author, except the View
materials, which are filed by title.

Series IV, Journals/Diaries, consists almost exclusively of the journals and diaries
of Charles Henri Ford from 1932 until 1967, with a few lacunae in the chronological
coverage. There are some typescripts of selected portions of the journals, one
photographic negative, and two printed sheets. A much later accession consists
of
one folder of correspondence, clippings, typescripts, and photocopies to Ford
from
Ronnie Burk and Bill Wolak.

The journals also present a detailed record of Ford's own creative aspirations and
endeavors. Among the projects and issues discussed are the scope of his journals
and
Ford's initial desire that they be eventually housed in the Yale University Library;
magazine editorship; the difficulties of finding a publisher for The Young and Evil; the relative merits of photography
and writing as contemplative arts; Blues; View; various playwriting projects, including "Alexander" (an historical play treating Alexander
the Great), "Let's Get Out of Here,""The Poet" (based on the Isak Dinesen short
story), and "The Labyrinth" (a play combining the
myths of Antigone, Phaedra, and Ariadne); correcting the page proofs of Sleep in a Nest of Flames and Ford's hope that this
volume will establish his reputation as the best poet of his generation; the desire
to rewrite Oedipus Rex; the use of verse in the
theater; the desire to publish an edited version of his journals; the inability
to
work; the desire to sublimate his sexual energy into poetic activity; the
difficulties of translation; the poetry of sound; the desire to write as a desire
to
dominate; measuring himself as a playwright against T. S. Eliot and Christopher
Fry;
the abandonment of journal writing; the lure of documentary filmmaking; a possible
sequel to The Young and Evil; a potential hoax to
publish a story under the pen name Ghondi Cato; the abandonment of literature
for
painting; the possible sale of his papers to the University of Texas at Austin;
and
Spare Parts.

The journals also provide an intimate portrait of Ford's private life. They document
Ford's relationships with his father C. L. Ford, his mother Gertrude Cato Ford,
his
sister Ruth Ford, his niece Shelley, and Ruth's husband Zachary Scott. Ford often
reminisces about the family's frequent relocations during his childhood, including
periods in Brookhaven, Mississippi, and Big Spring and San Antonio, Texas. There
are
also accounts of Ford's trip to Tennessee to visit his dying father; the intimacy
of
the relationship with his mother; Gertrude Ford's business ventures; Gertrude's
romantic involvements; the sibling rivalry between Charles Henri and Ruth, as
well
as their mutual dependence; the difficulties Ruth experienced in raising a child
as
a single parent; the difficulties Zachary Scott's alcoholism created in his marriage
to Ruth; Zachary and Ruth's generosity to Charles Henri; Ruth's career as a model
and, later, as an actress; Zachary's acting career; the tensions between Shelley
and
Ruth Ford; the death of Gertrude Ford in Mexico; and the death of Zachary Scott.

Ford also chronicles his long-term relationship with the Russian painter Pavel
Tchelitchew ("Pavlik"). The journals include detailed passages concerning the
beginning of their relationship against the objections of many friends; their
domestic arrangements; Tchelitchew's artistic concerns; his likes and dislikes
among
his fellow artists; his cultivation of younger artists; his close friendships
with
Alice de Lamar, Leonor Fini and, for a time, Edith Sitwell; his relationship with
his sister Choura; his theatrical design projects; his chronic health concerns;
his
generosity to and affection for the Ford family; his emotional dependence on Ford;
Ford's financial dependence on Tchelitchew; their intermittent squabbles;
Tchelitchew's impatience with Ford's tendency to idleness; and Tchelitchew's
insecurities concerning his worth as an artist. Especially moving are the passages
in which Ford documents Tchelitchew's courage while the artist languishes in the
Salvator Mundi Hospital in Rome, where, after some months, he would die of heart
failure.

The journals also provide a lively record of some aspects of male homosexual activity
in the twentieth century. Ford recounts his earliest sexual encounters with older
men; his experiences with prostitution; the heady sexual climate of New York City
in
the thirties; his arrest for public indecency; the constant struggle between his
desire for sexual release and for creative activity; venereal disease; his various
sexual partners; his predilection for adolescents; the sexual unreserve in Paris
pissoirs; the difficulty of renewing his Italian
visa after he comes under suspicion of homosexuality; attitudes in various countries
towards homosexuality; and the cruising protocol of several cities, especially
Paris
and Athens.

The journals have been extensively marked for deletions. Many of these are the result
of Ford's re-reading with a view to publication. In addition, there are extensive
editorial markings by Parker Tyler throughout; there are also occasional editorial
comments in Tyler's hand.

A later accession contains a newspaper clipping about the American Indian activist
Leonard Peltier, one letter to Ford from Ronnie Burk, as well as two of Burk's
typescript poems ( "Heatwave" and "Snapshot") and photocopies of his word collages.
There are also eleven photocopy typescript poems by Bill Wolak.